Yundoo Y8 Android TV Box – Rockchip RK3399 Hexa Core USB 3.1 Type C

Yundoo Y8 Android TV Box Review

The Yundoo Y8 TV Box came as surprise to me. While other TV box manufacturers were busy releasing TV boxes one after the other with minor improvements here and there. We haven’t heard from Yundoo for some time since the release of the Yundoo Y7, and has finally resurfaced with a bang, with the release of the Yundoo Y8 TV box.

What’s new?

There is a saying that the race is not for the swiftest, but for those that endure it to the end. It appears that Yundoo applies this philosophy when releasing this TV box. The Yundoo Y8 comes with a couple new features not yet seen in other TV boxes before.

Available from the following

NB. 2GB RAM 16GB ROM models are also listed on the same page on links above.

The “CPU Cores”

Yes that’s right “CPU Cores”, I have never seen a TV box with split CPU Cores in one CPU before, it’s called the Hexa core CPU because of a total of 6 cores combined. The Yundoo Y8, runs on the Rockchip RK3399 Cortex A53 Dual Core + the Cortex A72 Quad Core Hexa core CPU, running up to 2.0GHz. We have seen this type of CPU arrangement in high-end mobile smartphones, which allows them to operate super-fast and at the same time multitask by switching between phone calls, games, browsing, taking pictures, recording videos etc. All this in done without having to close one app to use another, and the mobile phone maintains speed and performance. This is what you now have in this new version of the Yundoo. See The Benefits of Multiple CPU Cores in Mobile Devices.

The New GPU

Tired of seeing the Mali T820? Well the Yundoo Y8 comes with a new GPU, the sports the ARM T860 Quad Core MP4 GPU with speeds not yet disclosed. But with stats from the ARM website, it shows that the Mali T860 GPU is faster and more efficient at 4K video playback than the T820, and it comes with some compression features and other OpenGL and OpenCL support among others.

Memory and Storage

Yundoo isn’t fooling around, they released two models the power model which comes with 4GB DDR3 RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The economy model comes with 2GB DDR3 RAM and 16GB of internal storage. This isn’t much of a difference, because later in this post you’ll see the kind of storage capability that this box has.

Connectivity

At this point I am not sure what WiFi chip the Yundoo Y8 is using, the the full review I will be able to say more on that. What I do know is that it comes with Dual Band Support 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz + 5.8GHz Wifi, and Bluetooth 4.0. Some are saying Bluetooth 4.1 + EDR, again I will review in the later video.

Major IO Ports improvement

This to me is the alleluia moment about this box. The Yundoo Y8 sports 2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0, and 1 USB 3.1 Type C. Yundoo must have been doing their homework, or it could have been that the hardware was only made available till now. However, better late than never, all TV box users and those waiting for a box like this. You can now use those fancy 2TB and 3TB and over external hard drives wit speed and efficiency, and as I mentioned early with the implementation of these new USB ports storage is not a problem any more weather 18GB or the 32GB model. Play what you want, watch what you want, listen what you want, plugin what you want, stream what you want, you name it. also read What are the advantages of a USB Type-C cable?

Other ports include 1 HDMI, 1 RJ45 Ethernet LAN , 1 reset button, 1 Optical audio SPDIF, 1 SD card slot, and the power adapter jack. It comes in a black plastic housing, and it has a power button to the front.

Software

The Yundoo Y8 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and it comes pre-installed with a number of app like Kodi, Netflix, Miracast, ShowBox, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Plex, HuLu, Crackle, Google Play store, app installer, and a couple others. Most important it comes with the OTA firmware updates function. Even though this remains a sore point for many TV boxes and TV box users, we’ll see how it performs in the full review.

Conclusion

So I finally got my hands on the Yundoo Y8 Rockchip RK3399 Hexa Core TV Box. From those who already had the opportunity to review it said that it is one of the fastest TV box they have ever seen. Well this is my take on it, when I tested the Yundoo Y8 a couple things stood out for me:

Pros

1. It has two CPUs for a total of 6 cores.
2. The Max CPU clock range is actually 2.0GHz.
3. It has a new GPU the Mali T860 MP4 Quad Core.
4. It has 4GB of DDR4 RAM.
5. Benchmarks are the highest I have ever seen.
6. I comes rooted.
7. The first TV box I have seen to have a USB 3.0 and a USB Type C.
8. Games on this device is a blast. best ever.
9. You can uninstall TVMC and install your own Kodi and addons, no problems, however you cannot overwrite, must uninstall first.
10. you can install a custom launcher like nuvo launcher.

These are all well and good, these are the things didn’t work for me:

Cons

1. The launcher is really dark giving the user a dull feeling.
2. The launcher has too many screens to slide through.
3. Out of the box the Y8 comes with its resolution set to 720p and 1080p, you have to change manually.
4. There is no audio settings to switch between PCM, HDMI, or Optical.
5. TVMC and K addons are a waste of time.
6. There were no new updates, and the updates feature is hidden quite in the settings under the about tab.
7. YouTube HD videos play very jerky
8. Key mapping apps to use gamepads on any game, and I tried many, have a compatibility problem with the Android installation.
9. Kodi 17 installs but has a problem with navigation, problem with a mouse, the cursor moves to fast, Kodi 16.1 you have to revert to.
10. The Yundoo Y8 is a bit expensive for a TV box.
11. The infrared remote works, but you still need an air mouse or a touchpad keyboard.
15. live wallpapers does not work on the home screen of the launcher.

Conclusion:

Is this box a good TV box to buy? If you can afford it, it’s a great TV box to buy especially for Android gaming. As for streaming it’s a bit overkill, but the more the hardware the better. It’s a the best TV box I have reviewed thus far, all this box needs is a good firmware update and iron out the kinks, and this box will be the best.